1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to textile fabric testing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many factors are commonly assessed when preparing and testing textile fabrics. Broadly stated, these factors include simulating and measuring mechanical and thermal sensory signals and psychological judgement processes during human hand evaluation of textiles. At present instruments or apparatuses are available to test the appropriate factors separately which means the overall costs are relatively high and difficulties are encountered in interpreting the test results because different instant conditions will prevail in the separate tests.
It is an object of the invention to overcome or at least reduce this problem.
According to the invention there is provided a single apparatus for testing planar textile fabric specimens, the apparatus comprising an upwardly biased horizontal bottom plate surrounded by a peripheral vertically fixed upstanding skirt that defines an upward facing cross-sectional area that is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the specimen, a movable horizontal top plate having cross-sectional area that is less than the upward facing cross-sectional area, a ram, for moving the top plate up and down vertically during each test cycle relative to the bottom plate, which is arranged to bend the specimen at its periphery against the skirt while pressing a central region of the specimen against the bottom plate, in which the bottom plate is arranged to be vertically arrested to allow the ram to cause the top plate to compress the central region of the specimen against the bottom plate, including mechanical sensors to monitor the prevailing mechanical conditions during each test cycle to determine the thickness of the specimen, and shearing and bending characteristics and compressibility of the specimen.
The top plate preferably has a rotatable auxiliary section within its cross-sectional area, a motor to rotate the section about a vertical axis when the section is pressed against a top surface of the specimen and mechanical sensors for monitoring the operation of the motor to determine frictional resistance to rotation of the section caused by the specimen.
The top plate may be heated and maintained at a temperature greater than environmental temperature, and sensors provided to monitor the prevailing temperature conditions heat fluxes during each test cycle.
The apparatus may be mounted in a cabinet during use to enable the environmental conditions of the apparatus to be maintained constant and independent of prevailing environmental changes outside the cabinet.